Category: Gaming

Like many others, I took delivery of Uncharted 4 today. I got home from work, unpacked the very impressive Nathan Drake collectible statue, took a picture or two and sat down to dinner.

The collector’s set is very large, but rather sparse. The statue is the centerpiece and, at over a foot tall, towers over similar pack-ins from other games. The game, in a steel case, a small hardcover art book, some stickers and a small load of downloadable multi-player goodies are also included. It pales in comparison to the cornucopia of trinkets in the Uncharted 3 collector’s editions, but hey, it is a very impressive statue!

I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. This is it: the end of the game. Or, in true Fallout-style, at the least the end of this version of the main story. I can’t say that I’m pleased with the outcome, but I did enjoy the ride.

With all of the massive experience dumps of the final missions, I earned three levels. Playing on Very Hard difficulty has its tense moments, so I took the second rank of “Toughness”, which is essentially free armor. I’ve also been getting crippled fairly regularly. To address this I bumped my Endurance up to seven allowing me to take the first rank of “Adamantium Skeleton”, which reduces limb damage.

At the end of the session, where I’d reached level 78, I decided to splurge and spend my hoarded perk points. I’m well past the point of needing things, so I decided, instead to dig and figure out what I wanted. As I’m a heavy V.A.T.S. user and still (mostly) walking from place to place, I decided to focus on Action Point replenishment.

I first completed the second and third ranks of Grim Reaper’s Spirit. This gives me a 35% chance to restore all my action points and refill my Critical Meter after a kill in V.A.T.S. Next, I took all three ranks of Moving Target, a perk I’d all but ignored. The first rank offers +50 damage and energy resistance when sprinting. Useful for those, um, “strategic withdrawals”, but not something I was missing. That hides the real draw of the second and third ranks, each of which reduce the Action Point usage of sprinting by 50%. I can run everywhere now!

I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. I paid a visit to Tinker Tom, from whom I bought an armored bathrobe. We also talked about something else. I’ve continued walking most places, which has led to more discoveries and distractions.

I earned two levels, but haven’t spent the points. I’ve no reason for hording them beyond my enjoyment of spending a bunch of them at once. Why up something by 20% when you can double immediately?!

I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. I’ve been swamped, as the kids say, “IRL”, so haven’t been moving forward much. After being disappointed by the courser in the last part, I decided to deal with my thieving settler problem once and for all.

I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. I continued to ignore my long-lost son and Danse came with, like the dim-witted, loyal, puppy-dog that he is.

This guy is a straight up thief!

I began by cleaning house. I’ve been stockpiling loot, so did the fast-travel shuffle to sell it all. Danse didn’t appreciated the fact that I did this naked. It’s the easiest way to keep my wanted gear seperate. He keep telling me I was “out of uniform”.

In this process I noticed that some of my gear was missing! Danses gift, “Righteous Authority” and the “Limitless Potential” prototype, amongst others, were gone! I discovered that my settlers were straight up stealing from me! The local bartender (that bastard pictured) had no fewer than four of my legendary weapons on him! To think, I gave that bastard his job!

My adventuring earned me four more levels. I used the first two to finish off all five ranks of Rifleman. My non-automatic rifles now do 200% damage, ignore 30% of my enemy’s armor and are better at crippling. It’s not helped by the perk, but I also tossed a flamer barrel on a “Never Ending Plasma Pistol” to create an exceedingly nasty little number.

My gauss rifle now does 409 damage, plus a bit of explosive AOF. That’s over 1700 damage on a sneak attack.

My Lucky Laser Rifle does 144 damage (double that on criticals), but ammo is much more common.

Who wouldn’t want to shoot a never-ending stream of green fire from their hands?

I also took the second rank of Critical Banker, allowing me to have three criticals on tap. It’s come in handy. Lastly, I took the first rank of Grim Reaper’s Sprint. V.A.T.S. kills now completely refill my action points 15% of the time. As a heavy V.A.T.S. user, this is one of my favorite perks from previous games. I’m surprised it took me so long to take it here.

I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. As I promised last time, today I headed over to the Cambridge Police Station to hook up with Paladin Danse. The Brotherhood and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on things, but they deserve a shot, right?

My adventuring earned me three levels and I dumped all mt perk points into Rifleman. With the exception of my still glorious gauss rifle, my weapons have been getting a little anemic. I’m hoping this will give them a much needed boost for the end game.